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David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire, the U.K. based music magazine.

Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art.

Toop published his pioneering book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound appeared, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass."^[1] Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Scanner, and others. In 2001, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960-1977.

• Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (1984) ISBN 0-89608-238-5 - republished with additional chapters as
  • Rap Attack 2: African Rap To Global Hip Hop (1992) ISBN 1-85242-243-2
  • Rap Attack 3 (2000) ISBN 1-85242-627-6
• Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995) ISBN 1-85242-743-4
• Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (1999) ISBN 1-85242-595-4
• Haunted Weather : Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) ISBN 1-85242-812-0

• New & Rediscovered Musical Instruments (with Max Eastley) (1975)
• Buried Dreams (with Max Eastley) (1994)
• Pink Noir (1996)
• Screen Ceremonies (1996)
• Spirit World (1997)
• Hot Pants Idol (1999)
• Museum of Fruit (1999)
• Black Chamber (2003)
• 37th Floor at Sunset (2004)
• Doll Creature (with Max Eastley) (2004)
• Sound Body (2007)

• Ocean of Sound (1996) - (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)
• Crooning on Venus (1996)
• Sugar & Poison: Tru-Life Soul Ballads for Sentients, Cynics, Sex Machines & Sybarites (1996)
• Booming on Pluto: Electro for Droids (1997)
• Guitars on Mars (1997)
• Haunted Weather : Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) - (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)

• DavidToop.com
• Perfect Sound Forever: David Toop Interview by Billy Bob Hargus (August 1997)
• DT artist's page on vibrofiles.com
• excerpt from Toop's book Ocean of Sound

1. ^ Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, p. 355.

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